Active world on Saturn's moon likely

NEW YORK: The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world.
The most recent fly-bys of Enceladus made by the American space agency Nasa's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time.
Close views of the southern polar region, where jets of water vapour and icy particles spew from vents within the moon's distinctive ���tiger stripe��� fractures, provide surprising evidence of Earth-like tectonics, Nasa said.
They yield new insight into what may be happening within the fractures. The latest data on the plume the huge cloud of vapour and particles fed by the jets that extend into space show it varies over time and has a far-reaching effect on Saturn's magnetosphere, it added. "Of all the geologic provinces in the Saturn system that Cassini has explored, none has been more thrilling or carries greater implications than the region at the southernmost portion of Enceladus," said panel member Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder.
"Enceladus has Earth-like spreading of the icy crust, but with an exotic difference the spreading is almost all in one direction, like a conveyor belt," said Paul Helfenstein, Cassini imaging associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The findings were presented by Cassini experts on Monday.